Absolute Poverty in Europe : Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Hidden Phenomenon

Engaging systematically with severe forms of poverty in Europe, this important book stimulates academic, public and policy debate by shedding light on aspects of deprivation and exclusion of people in absolute poverty in affluent societies. It examines issues such as access to health care, housing and nutrition, poverty related shame, and violence.

The book investigates different policy and civic responses to extreme poverty, ranging from food donations to penalisation and “social cleansing” of highly visible poor and how it is related to concerns of ethics, justice and human dignity.

Dr Gottfried Schweiger is Senior Scientist at the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg. He works in social and political philosophy.

Economist, PhD in Public policy and master's Degree in Human Rights

Tiina Silvasti is Professor of Social and Public Policy at the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research interests focus on charitable response to food poverty.

Professor/Researcher, University Institute for Family Studies, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid

Julia Brannen is Professor of the sociology of the family at UCL Institute of Education and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. With an international reputation for research on the lives of parents, children and young people in families, including work-family life, relations between the generations and food in families, she is well known for her methodological expertise, in particular for advancing mixed methods approaches.